State law requires unaccredited school districts to pay for students who want to transfer to other schools. The Department of Elementary and Secondary released new guidance Thursday for applying that law.

The department recommends reducing the tuition that unaccredited districts pay districts that receive transfers. It also says that in the future, students should be required to have attended an unaccredited district before they could leave it.

The guidance is similar to policies enacted this week for St. Louis County's Normandy district. Normandy is being dissolved and replaced with a new system to be overseen by the state. Normandy has been unaccredited since 2013, and the new school system will be given new status as a state oversight district.